What was the Story Behind Mary Cattermole?
by Lizzy88
Summary: Ever wondered what happened and what the story was behind Mary Cattermole in HP 7? Here's the answer!


What is this thing - this obsession, that we humans call love? I don't understand it, I doubt many people ever do, but I have experienced it. In fact, I am still experiencing it now.

Sirius Black arrived at Hogwarts the same year I did. We met in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, and shared a great day together. We both became Gryffindors, and we both loved Quidditch. It wasn't until fifth year that I realized that I was in love with him, but we were always close friends. Not quite as close as he was to the stupid "Marauders," but still quite close. In fifth year, while taking our Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL tests, I sat behind him. It was normal. I was not in love with him just yet. I leaned over my parchment and began testing. It took over three hours, but finally I set down my quill, screwed the cap onto my ink well, and turned my parchment over. _At last_.

I stared ahead at Sirius, who was leaning back in his chair. It was really then that I fully took in his handsome features, his slightly arrogant refrain, his long dark hair so casually gorgeous. He was lounging, his quill down. He turned and gave someone the thumbs up. I looked to see who it was. James Potter. Of course. My good friend, Lilly Evans was the unfortunate receiver of James' affection. He was besotted with her. I glanced back at Sirius. The new feelings inside me blossomed.

I was well and truly in love with Sirius Black.

After the OWL Lilly, Sue, and I led the way down the lake to relax after the hard test. We rolled up our robes and dipped our toes in the water, watching the giant squid swimming by, skimming the water like some enormous water strider. I shot a look over my shoulder and saw James, Sirius, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew coming down the stone steps. My heart soared. I thought of my name, Mary Elizabeth Warrin. It would sound a heap of a lot better as Mary Elizabeth Black. I smiled at Sue as she scurried off, her boyfriend, Reg Cattermole in tow.

That night, when the common room was nearly empty, I cornered Sirius. I planned to confess my undying love to him.

"Hey Mary, what's up?" He asked. I blushed.

"Er, I..." I faltered as Jennifer Peaks rushed in, tears streaming down her face, followed by a red-faced Andrew Finnigan. Sirius excused himself from our conversation for a moment and asked Andrew what the problem was.

"Broke up with Jen." He sighed. "It was bound to happen."

Sirius nodded sympathetically and bade Andrew goodnight. He returned to me. His face was alight in a way I had never seen it before.

"What a great night!" He crowed. "Jennifer Peaks broke up with Andrew! Yeah! I'll ask her out tomorrow!"

My heart sank like a stone. Jennifer Peaks. I hated her very name. Curse her. I needed to hex her with something good. I felt myself turning tomato red.

"So, what were you saying Mary?"

I looked up into his earnest, happy, expectant face.

"Nothing."

For the next month I had to endure watching Sirius and Jennifer making out in the corridors, tickling each other in the common room, and otherwise having fun that I wanted to be having with Sirius. Sue and Reg were enjoying life as well, and Lilly went out with Arthur Weasly for a brief spell. I was mad and upset, and wanted someone to have fun with, so more out of spite than anything else, I asked Andrew Finnigan out. Andrew loved me, and I pretended I loved him back. I felt really horrid and like an evil b-... well, you get the picture. And so fifth year passed into sixth. Jennifer kept a firm hold on Sirius, and he become so obsessed with her that he would not talk to me anymore. It was just little miss beauty queen, as I called her behind her back.

In seventh year Lilly became the sweetheart of a thoroughly overjoyed James Potter, Sue broke up with Reg, and I broke up with Andrew, who went running off to comfort poor Sue. Seventh and sixth year were a whirlwind of hormones and tears. After NEWT, the year was over, and it was time to say goodbye to Hogwarts for the last time. Sirius did not even sit in the same compartment on the Hogwarts Express as me.

I got a job as an assistant to the head of the Pest Advisory Bureau. It was dreadful dull work, sorting papers and writing boring, monotonous reports on how to rid a garden of gnomes or how to distinguish whether a dog is a jack russell terrier or a Crup.

After a year or so I was shunted to head of the Bureau, and stayed there for over six years. Seven years after leaving Hogwarts, and without a word from any friends aside from Sue, I got the issue of the _Prophet_ that turned my life upside down.

**MASS MURDER BY 24 YEAR OLD SIRIUS BLACK**

screamed the headline. I fainted.

Sirius Black, it seemed, was responsible for the murders of over a dozen muggles, his old friend Peter Pettigrew, and was now inside Azkaban Prison. I felt numb inside. I had always loved Sirius. Somehow, my mind found a way to blame the changing of Sirius on Jennifer Peaks. If I had been going out with him, I told myself, he would not have become evil. No innocents would be dead.

Not even a month before this morbid news, James and Lilly Potter had been murdered by You-Know-Who. Their one-year old son, Harry, had not been killed when You-Know-Who had tried to kill him, but the curse had rebounded upon You-Know-Who. Sirius was a killer. Sirius was the boy's godfather. I felt horrible.

For over a year I was like a zombie, and I did nothing. Then I was shifted up to the head of the the Department of the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. It was like a a switch was turned on in my brain. I was now a workaholic, spending all my free time in the office, concentrating on the magical creatures I was in charge of.

One day, while hurrying to a meeting, I bumped into a familiar face; Reg Cattermole, Sue's old boyfriend.

"Omigosh! Reg!"

It took a moment for him to recognize me.

"Mary?Mary Warrin?"

"Yes!" I was surprised at how pleased I was to see him. We chatted for a bit, then I had to run to my meeting. But we agreed to meet for lunch and catch up for old times sake.

"Wow. Did you really date the drummer form the Weird Sisters?"

"Yeah. Katlyn Burns."

"Did you like her?"

"Not really. Too hairy."

We both laughed. We were sitting in a pub in London, talking about what we had been getting up to for the last eight years.

"So, did you see about..." He hesitated for a fraction of a second. "Sirius Black?"

My ears clouded, and I was swept back to that day in the great hall, and that warm relaxation on the lawn by the lake. I suddenly became aware that Reg was talking to me.

"...I mean, yeah he was your best buddy and all, but he became a mass murderer! Amazing! And to think that Jennifer Peaks went out with him for so long! She could have died! Scary thought, wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah..."

For over four years Reg and I met. It became dating, then love, then passion. I married him in our firth year, and in our sixth I had our first daughter, Violet. To make money for our growing family, I wrote a book on charms- Saucy Tricks for Tricky Sorts. I sold a few copies, then I had my next child, a little boy named Hunter. After hunter came Lilly, who I named in memory of my old friend. I was muggle born, and my parents had disowned me as soon as I had began at Hogwarts, so my children really only had Reg's parents for Grandparents. They stayed there while we went to work, until they were old enough to attend Hogwarts.

It was ten years after our marriage that Reg and I got the awful news that You-Know-Who was back. It came as a great shock to us, and we increased security measures over our home. But when that news came out, with it came the news that Sirius Black, who had escaped from Azkaban two years previously, was dead. I was in a state of utter bewilderment as I read the article.

**Sirius Black- Innocence Exposed**

**A victim accused without trial of the mass murder of several muggles and a wizard, Sirius Black, the once high-security prisoner in Azkaban prison, and the first person to ever escape the fortress' walls, has died on Ministry of Magic premises, and was cleared of all charges by Cornelius Oswald Fudge, Minister of Magic.**

**"Well, Black, it seems, wasn't guilty at all." States a thoroughly agitated Fudge on the night of the murder. "The real culprit was Peter Pettigrew, who Black was supposed to have, um, killed. Pettigrew, is, well, still at large, and Ministry Aurors are on the job. He'll be rounded up in no time, I assure you."**

**But what convinced Fudge of Black's innocence? Arthur Weasly, a Ministry employee, who supposedly knew of Black's innocence says**

**"Albus Dumbledore has previously informed Fudge of the truth about Sirius Black, and was rudely ignored." He reveals to **_**Prophet **_**reporters. **

**"That is all I'm saying. I don't want to lose my job." **

**Sirius Black's own cousin, Belatrix Lestrange, was Black's killer, and searches for her have been (continued on page six, column nine)**

I relaxed. Sirius was innocent! The tension that had been inside me ever since the horrible issue of the _Prophet,_ disappeared like a bubble popping. I went over and hugged my husband. I was no longer in love with Sirius, but I could now at least mourn him without feeling guilty. I smiled. Everything was going to be alright.

Epilogue

This is a sneak peek into Mary Cattermole's personal diary. Hope you enjoy it!

I just got this diary tonight! Reg got it for me, as a present for surviving that interrogation by that horrid Umbridge woman. Today was very odd. After Pius Thicknese became Minister, everything was different. Muggleborns like me weren't allowed wands! They thought we had "stolen" the magic for ourselves from real wizards. I was being interrogated, and there were dementors everywhere, and I felt horrible. Then a man burst into the room, stunned Umbridge and her assistant, and sent a patronus at the dementors. It was a big stag, I think. Reg was supposed to be there, and the man, once I got a closer look at him, was who Reg said had submitted my name for questioning. He told me to take the children and leave the country. We ran into the atrium, and I saw who I thought was Reg, but he said he was not my husband, then another Reg was there, and then the man and the first Reg, and a woman were gone! Aparated, I suppose. We aparated too, and took the children to Norway. I think we will be safe here.

Goodnight,

Mary Cattermole


End file.
